In response to a report released by Blacks in Government, an African-American advocacy organization, that criticized the New York City government for discriminating against minorities in its promotion practices, city councilman Bill Perkins decided to call a town hall meeting to discuss the severity of the problem.

City councilman John Liu indicated that he would offer an Asian-American perspective. Chinese-American personnel in the government pointed out that there was no information on the types of jobs, the length of the work, or on the status of promotions to evaluate whether Chinese Americans faced a glass ceiling. It is clear, however, that many Chinese Americans are employed in technical positions and not many hold managerial positions.

The report released this week claims that in eight of the city’s departments, the percentage of managerial positions held by whites was disproportionately larger than the percentage of managerial positions held by Blacks. For example, in the Department of Motor Vehicles, where 28 percent of the employees are Black, only 8 percent hold managerial positions.

The organization also investigated the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Design and Construction, Citywide Administrative Services, Homeless Services, Children’s Services, and the Office of the Mayor and found that all employed Chinese Americans.

According to John Liu, however, there is a low percentage of Asian Americans working in each of the city government’s agencies. Furthermore, more than half of them work in mid-level and entry-level positions. He said that he would petition the mayor to designate an increase in the number of Asian Americans holding managerial positions and to consider the overall uneven distribution among other minority groups.

Yong-ming Wang, former chair of the Chinese American Association of the City of New York, pointed out that among the city’s 250,000 employees, close to 6,000 are Chinese Americans – ten percent of them are members of the Chinese American Association of the City of New York. Of these, only five percent hold managerial positions and only ten Chinese Americans hold top positions in the agencies.

Hseh-Sia Yuen, the current chair of the association, said that many Chinese Americans were employed in highly technical positions. For example, among the organization’s 300 active members, 50 of them worked in the Department of Finance. Robert Lee, who is the assistant secretary of Department of Finance, is one of the very few who hold a high-level position.

Members of the staff at the Department of Environmental Protection said that the department employed approximately 20 Chinese Americans in its labs. According to them, they were all highly educated, skillful, and meticulous.